News In Brief

January 31, 1984

Moscow
— USSR greets Reagan plans with jabs on poverty, arms

The Soviet Union reacted Monday to President Reagan's reelection announcement by attacking what it called his aggressive foreign policy and ''criminal disregard'' for Americans. ''Under the administration of millionaires, there are more homeless, paupers, and hungry in the United States than there were at any time in the past two decades,'' the official Tass news agency said.

In the hope of gaining military superiority, Mr. Reagan has produced an arms program ''unprecedented by its scope,'' the news agency said. ''The US administration speaks a great deal about the need of a dialogue. Yet, it deadlocks, disrupts, and blocks all the talks on the problems of curbing the arms race,'' Tass said.

On Sunday, Tass said the Soviet Embassy in Washington handed a diplomatic message to the State Department a few days ago, listing what it said were violations of bilateral arms agreements. The note appeared to be a direct response to similar charges made by President Reagan Jan. 23 that the Soviet Union had violated or probably violated seven arms control agreements between the two superpowers.

The diplomatic note said the US ''directly contradicts the generally recognized norms and principles of international law and fundamental US-Soviet accords clearly stipulating neither side shall strive for military superiority.''